The Birthday MONTH continues!

But a very good one! In what seemed to be an effort to pack at several days into one, we headed to Atlanta (about 100 miles) early Sunday morning. (We being all eight of us in a Toccoa Falls College van, with Gary driving and me as the honorary tour guide!). Our first destination was to worship at First Baptist Church of Atlanta and sit under the preaching of Charles Stanley. Now, I’m not a huge mega-church fan, and having a camera on a track around the perimeter of the room is somewhat distracting, but I must admit it was a very friendly church, the preaching was excellent, and the service was a blessing. An unexpected bonus was the special music – two solos by Steve Green. Our group leader was right on the ball, and after the service arranged for us to have a group shot taken with Dr. Stanley. He was very gracious, and was actually taking quite a bit of time to greet any visitors who wanted to speak to him. It was well worth the drive!
From there we found a great little place for lunch – the Metro Diner. Yummm. Since we’ve been eating in the college cafeteria it quite a treat!
And then our destination for the rest of the day – Stone Mountain Park. I had no idea what to expect, but while it wasn’t Disney World (nor did it want to be!!) it was quite charming. We took the Summit Skyride up to the top of the largest exposed granite dome in North America right past the carving of Lee, Jackson, and Jefferson Davis. The views from the top were quite spectacular, and the terrain made me think I was walking on the moon. Aside from the fact that it was FREEZING, it was pretty cool! Back at the bottom of the mountain we headed to a lovely Antebellum Plantation area (looking at old houses still is one of my favorite things) and then we ended up at “ A Stone Mountain Christmas”. Lots of Christmas lights, a couple of cute shows, roaming performers, some nice shops, and general Christmas good cheer. Nothing about what Christmas is really about, but nothing offensive either. We wrapped up the evening after the brief fireworks and headed home. A long day, yes….but a good one!

Here are some photos from the day –
The group photo with Charles Stanley –
And then the group with the 3D glasses. Yes, we are a pretty wild group!
And then on to Stone Mountain….
It was a great day for kite flying…as long as you didn’t get too close to the edge!
And yes, it made it all the way up.
And here’s Atlanta in the distance…..
And finally the Christmas Village (with the Confederate Memorial carving in the background).

(Sorry if the picture download was forever! I could have posted more, but tried to show some restraint! 🙂 )